31 March, 1995
ICOT have been researching and developing of the fifth generation
computer technologies in the fifth generation computer project and its
follow-on project. ICOT research center will be closed at the end of
March, 1995.
Even though ICOT research center will be closed, services for ICOT Free Software will be carried out, including ftp-service and software maintenance as they were.
[Newly Released ICOT Free Software]
To date, we have released 84 programs of ICOT Free Software (IFS). We
are now preparing to release 16 further programs as IFS. Since IFS's
first release in August 1992, we release 100 programs for two and a
half year.
The KLIC system version 2, and programs that have been developed in the follow-on project using KLIC system are included in those 16 programs. By using KLIC system, you can employ the fifth generation technologies on your UNIX workstations.
[Overview]
KLIC version 2 is a portable and high-performance parallel
implementation of a concurrent logic programming language KL1 through
translation into the langauge C.
[Features]
KL1 is a concurrent logic programming language designed as the kernel
language of the FGCS project. KLIC is a portable and high-performance
parallel implementation of KL1 for systems having basic functions of
UNIX operating system.
Improvements over the version 1 are as follows.
[Overview]
Distributed pool provides basic in-memory database features where data
are distributed to many processing nodes.
[Features]
[Overview]
Kappa is a parallel database management system based on a nested
relational model, and runs on UNIX machines with KLIC.
[Features]
[Overview]
GDCC (KLIC version) is a parallel constraint logic programming
language, which is highly declarative, flexible and efficient, and can
deal with various constraints including non-linear polynomial
equations.
[Features]
Parallel constraint logic programming system GDCC has various
constraint solver libraries and the language processor which
translates GDCC programs to KL1. To provide a more flexible and
efficient language, GDCC parallelizes both logic language and
constraint solvers. This system enables you to describe what
(declarative knowledge) without how (procedural knowledge).
[Overview]
Helios is a system to support the construction of heterogeneous
distributed cooperative problem-solving systems by establishing
message passing between various problem solvers such as databases,
constraint solvers, etc.
[Features]
Helios defines a problem solver as an agent and attaches cooperation
mechanisms to it. These functions enable us to construct a
heterogeneous distributed cooperative problem-solving system for
solving problems with the cooperation of various agents in a
distributed environment. Helios encapsulates a problem solver with a
'capsule' module which absorbs its heterogeneity. Communication
between agents is carried out by placing them in an 'environment'. An
encapsulated environment also becomes an agent.
Helios provides the capsule description language CAPL, the environment description language ENVL, and agent cooperation mechanisms.
[Overview]
MGTP/G is a theorem prover for non-Horn clauses that deal with ground
atoms
[Features]
[Overview]
MGTP/N is a theorem prover for Horn clauses.
[Features]
There are two types of MGTP/N: 'model copying' and 'model sharing'.
The difference is how to keep generated atoms.
With model sharing, each PE has a copy of the model candidates. An
advantage of model sharing is that we can minimize inter-PE
communication since most time-consuming subsumption tests and
conjunctive matchings can be performed independently at each PE.
With model copying, the model candidates are distributed to each PE.
This method can obtain memory scalability and more parallelism than
the model sharing method. However, it has the drawback that the
communication cost increases since generated atoms need to flow to all
PEs for subsumption tests and conjunctive matchings.
[Overview]
Extended MGTP to solve finite domain constraint satisfaction problems
[Features]
[Overview]
This system partially improves temporary alignment in an iterative
way, and can effectively achieve high-quality alignment as a result.
(KLIC version)
[Features]
Multiple branches of a search tree in this combinatorial problem are
evaluated in parallel by using many processing elements in each
iteration.
The heuristic method, ``Restricted Partitioning Technique,'' prunes
a large number of branches in the search tree and makes it possible to
solve the combinatorial problem in a practical amount of time.
[Overview]
This parallel system, the combination of a genetic algorithm and an
iterative alignment algorithm, produces better results than iterative
aligners which employ hill-climbing search strategies.
[Features]
This parallel alignment system featuring a genetic algorithm can
improve an alignment score as rapidly as that with the hill-climbing
algorithm, and the system gradually increased the score to a higher
level which might be close to the optimal alignment score. The reason
why the genetic algorithm shows such high performance seems to be the
modularity of multiple alignment problems. If we can replace a part of
a sequence alignment with a better part from another, we obtain a
better multiple sequence alignment. Crossover operators achieve this
replacement in a statistical manner.
[Overview]
This system refines a rough alignment using a parallel simulated
annealing algorithm taking into account connected base pairs in RNA
stem regions.
[Features]
In general, the sum-of-pair alignment does not show complete
alignment in terms of stem structures, but merely indicates some
possible stem regions. This system refines the rough alignment with a
temperature parallel simulated annealing algorithm which optimizes the
score obtained by connected base pairs and covariance matches. This
procedure gives us a proper RNA-sequence alignment, from which we can
specify stem regions.
[Overview]
This system provides illustrations of biological reactions, signal
transductions, gene expressions and their relationships using Quixote.
[Features]
[Overview]
Successive State Splitting is an optimization mechanism of hidden
Markov networks using the same expectation maximization criteria as
the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) learning.
[Features]
[Overview]
This program extracts signal patterns in DNA sequences using a
discriminant analysis (class II quantification theory).
[Features]
Extraction of signal patterns is one of important problems in
genetic information processing. The patterns are utilized for
considering DNA-protein interaction and predicting functional sites in
gene identification. Using a discriminant analysis (class II
quantification theory), this program extracts signal patterns in DNA
sequences consisting of 2 categories (positive and negative samples).
[Overview]
This program extracts signal patterns in DNA sequences using Hidden
Markov Model (HMM) and Genetic Algorithm (GA).
[Features]
Extraction of signal patterns is one of important problems in
genetic information processing. The patterns are utilized for
considering DNA-protein interaction and predicting functional sites in
gene identification. This program extracts signal patterns in DNA
sequences using HMM and GA. The patterns are expressed in the form of
HMM. The topology of HMM is optimized by GA evaluating the likelihood
of HMM and complexity of the topology. A subroutine for evaluating
each HMM is impremented as a process, and executed concurrently.
[Overview]
The new HELIC-II is an experimental software tool that simulates the
complex reasoning processes of legal experts and is capable of some
types of legal reasoning.
[Features]
The new HELIC-II simulates legal reasoning strategies as follows.
[Call for KL1 Programs]
There are now many users of KLIC. We at ICOT would like to gather many
KL1 programs written by these users into a library for those new to
KL1.
There are many KL1 programs in ICOT Free Software, but, none of them are appropriate in size for reading or modifying by KL1 beginners. We would therefore like to ask you to send KL1 programs for those KL1 biginners. We would like to release a KL1 program library with the same conditions as ICOT Free Software. Those who agree with this proposal should send KL1 programs by e-mail to "ICOT Free Software Desk".
We will gather those programs and release them as a program library the same as for ICOT Free Software. We hope that many of you will send Kl1 programs to us suitable for KL1 beginners.
[User's group]
Anyone interested in organizing a user's group to carry out research
on any particular item of icot free software, for the purposes of
revision or improvement is invited to contact the ifs-desk via e-mail
at the address given at the end of this newsletter.
We hope to feature some of your proposals in the next issue of the newsletter. we will also forward reactions to your proposals to you.
Revised programs can be stored on the ftp server at icot, if you feel that your revision would be useful for other users.
[user's group for cu-prolog]
After its release as ICOT Free Software, a constraint logic
programming language cu-Prolog, including Prof. Sirai's
Macintosh/MS-DOS version, has been used by many students, engineers,
and CLP/NLP researchers.
In order to exchange comments and information about cu-Prolog, constraint-based grammar formalisms, and CLP, we have organized a cu-Prolog user's group. The address is
cup@icot.or.jp Please send e-mail to cup-request@icot.or.jpto join the mailing list. Currently, 49 researchers are on the mailing list.
For information on IFS, access ifs@icot.or.jpby e-mail. If you receive a paper edition of this newsletter, let us know your e-mail address and we shall send you the electronic edition. If you do not have an e-mail facility, contact the address below. All available IFS is listed in "ICOT Free Software Catalogue", and all IFS released in the follow-on project is listed in "ICOT Free Software Catalogue (Selected Version)". If you do not have a copy of either catalog, supply the IFS-desk with your postal address and we shall arrange to send a copy to you.
If your colleagues or acquaintances are interested in IFS, let us know their name and both their e-mail and postal addresses, and we shall arrange to send them both the newsletter and catalogue.
ICOT Free Software desk Institute for New Generation Computer Technology 21st Floor, Mita Kokusai Bldg. 4-28, Mita 1-chome Minato-ku, Tokyo 108 Japan FAX: +81-3-3456-1618